Tag: reading

Empty City

Most Chisinau residents always seem to abandon ship on the long weekends, especially on Orthodox Christian holidays. I was born and raised here and have nowhere to go, so I stay and get to enjoy the peace and quiet of an empty city. You don’t know what you lack until it hits you.

A post shared by Alexandra (@alexandrabrovco) on Apr 23, 2017 at 10:27am PDT

TBR Pile

Every reader knows that TBR piles have a tendency to turn into TBR mountains, and mine is no exception. With my current reading speed I might have just planned out my reading list for the next five years or so.

Duolingo Romanian

I reached level 7! This is a ridiculous non-achievement, if I am honest, but hey! I’m finally getting the hang of articles in Romanian. See, I understand the language. My listening comprehension of a calm conversation without an overbearing use of shortenings and slang is fine, I read books of what I suppose can be classified as ‘advanced’ level of reading, and my passive vocabulary is big, if a bit unbalanced. (For example, I understand an article about economy way better than I understand a romance novel.) But when I need to write or, heaven forbid, speak, my brain just freezes. Over the years I’ve lost the psychological barrier, and came to realise that the only reason I can’t actually speak the language is the absence of a solid grammar base. I was never given it at school, and I never actively pursued it on my own. Duo is helping me with that. Once I reach a certain level, I am going to pick up a textbook, just like I did with Spanish. I hope Duo releases the mobile version of the course soon.

Two Long Weekends

… in a row. Unheard of.

Current Read

Two book-related good things in one post? Is it a cheat? … Nah. Today is World Book Day! My current read is Thank You, Jeeves! by Wodehouse, my first book of his. Light-hearted and funny, though I do have a feeling that stand-alone short stories read better than this novel. Eventually we’ll see.

A post shared by Alexandra (@alexandrabrovco) on Apr 20, 2017 at 1:49am PDT

Snowpocalypse

I am not going to wax poetic about the April snow that halted the regular life in most parts of the country. I am not an idiot. It was a crisis, it was a catastrophe, and the aftermath will be felt for a while after. But I’m as happy as a dog when I see snow. It’s, I don’t know, like a basic instinct for me. I had to go to work on foot, and the usual ‘a little under an hour’ trip took me two hours. I was not frozen – the temperatures never went below zero – but I was wet, I was cold, I was in constant danger of either being hit by cars or falling trees, I kept thinking of the dead crops, and yet another economy blast this country is going to go through because of it.

Yet I would still stop and admire the eerie ‘winter wonderland’ beauty of it all. Very The Day After Tomorrow. (Don’t watch that movie if you haven’t yet, it’s shit.)

Hello, hello! I’ve taken quite a lengthy pause from publishing new installments of SGTS. I want SGTS to be as genuine as possible, and with that in mind I try to compose these posts of things that have really kept me going during the last two weeks or so. These lists were difficult to write as of late. Instead of forcing it, I just let it slide.

But I’m back! Sometimes you just have to push yourself a little.

Spanish

When I look back through all the SGTS I’ve posted so far, I see that Spanish has appeared in at least half of them. It’s not the only language that I am learning, but it’s the one that gives me most emotional satisfaction. I’ve been a bit slack in my studies for the last week or two, but in the past few days I’ve made a bigger effort, and it feels good.

Spring

Spring has been quite temperamental. Isn’t it always? We’ve been through really warm days (20+ C), and we’ve had some cold ones (2 C). Of course, it’s the weekends that get all the cold and the wind. But the trees are in bloom, and the grass is getting green everywhere, so it’s all good.

Makeup Inventory

I’ve been tallying up the amount of make-up and skincare items that I own, and the numbers have left me a bit discombobulated. I’m on a self-imposed make-up buying ban. Judging by the size of my skin and hair care stash, I might ban myself from purchasing those items as well.

Walks

Walking to and from work and taking long strolls in the evenings and on the weekends is doing wonders to my disposition – and health. I’m not quite in a happy place, but meh. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.

Ideas

Some time this week my father visited me and dropped a bunch of books at home. Amongst them was the book on the Peter Principle. I’ve been familiar with the concept for a while, but it hasn’t resonated with me as strongly before. Certain events in my work and personal life were not pleasant, and they continue to disappoint. This book has been a great reminder to take my side projects and ideas more seriously. This, too, has been aiding my otherwise low disposition. Moldova is not known as the land of opportunities, but sometimes you just have to take a risk, because you’re tired of constantly feeling cramped and trapped.

Prodigy

As any other person out there, I run a list of things I want to achieve and experience in life. On that list is a section on bands and artists I want to see performing live. Hearing the news about The Prodigy’s show in Kishinev was amazing. I’ll be buying my ticket next week.

I hate doing chores not because I hate, say, washing up or sorting laundry. I hate doing chores, because I live in a huge flat and doing them takes up half of my non-work time. It would’ve been less, but… seven cats.

When I do physical labour around the house, my mind is free to wander as it sees fit. Sometimes it’s good. We all need a break from constant flows of information. Such disengaged thinking helps find inspiration, solutions, etc. etc., blah blah yadda yadda.

But my mind is constantly racing. Leaving it to its own, unoccupied for prolonged periods of time (and doing the litter boxes together with floor washing in the corridor and the smaller kitchen takes over 2 hours, and it’s a long time) is bad for me. It’s not de-stressing, it’s stressful. I don’t look for solutions, I just think about problems. And if I get a sudden rush of inspiration, then I just abandon cleaning, and it never gets done.

And I get bored, bored, bored.

So I hate chores.

And I find it ironic that the way out of this situation includes another thing that I hate with equal force.

Audiobooks.

I hate audiobooks because I can never concentrate long enough to listen to them whilst commuting or exercising. I’m not very good at picking up information audibly (don’t tell my employers…) My mind picks up a sentence, and runs away with it, and bam — half the book is over, and I have no idea what happened. Most narrators, no matter how good, begin to sound like drones about twenty minutes in.

If you have a similar problem, I suggest you give listening to books while doing chores a go. Watching television doesn’t work (when ironing, or cooking, or sorting laundry, for example), because I end up abandoning work in lieu of staring at the screen. Listening to music doesn’t work, because I spend more time doing silly dance moves and singing than vacuuming or washing windows. Audiobooks, however, turned out to be great.

Here are the ones I’ve finished relatively recently:

Neverwhere; technically a radio drama, but same process applies. This is absolutely amazing, whether you’re a fan of the book or have never heard of it. Audio/ book.

What the most successful people do before breakfast; not clean cat poop, apparently, but oh well. Audio/ book.

The Martian; a book that is probably better to be read than listened to. All books are better to be read, but some especially so. Regardless, this one left me lacklustre in many ways. Audio/ book.

Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and Other Stories; it’s narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch. Need I go on, really, what is wrong with your life. Audio.